DeSantis won’t be governor forever

by | Oct 31, 2021

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During a speech this week while addressing attendees at the Future of Florida Summit in Orlando, Governor Ron DeSantis strode onto the stage and delivered a speech with the usual finger-waving swagger, but at the conclusion, issued a stern warning to the business leaders in the audience not to embrace “woke” corporate culture.

“The minute you go into becoming more of a political actor than just simply a business actor,” DeSantis said, “you know, guys like me got to treat you that way.”

The remarks were just the latest signal from DeSantis that he is willing to cross the bright line from pure constitutional conservatism into something bolder and brasher than Republicans have heretofore been comfortable with.

And there’s always been good reason for Republican reservations.

The Grand Old Party has traditionally championed individual rights and freedoms, which automatically extend to businesses and corporations insofar as those companies exist as extensions of individual property rights. The owner of a sandwich shop, for example, can put up a sign that says “no shirt, no shoes, no service,” and that owner also possessed the legal right to ask customers to leave the premises if those rules were violated.

But now, DeSantis seems to be saying, put up the wrong sign, and he may choose to act against that business owner. His warning came off as a threat that he wouldn’t hesitate to use the power of government to intervene if he feels the circumstances are warranted. During his speech, DeSantis pointed to the recent example of Major League Baseball and the decision to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of a voting rights law passed by Georgia lawmakers.

Many baseball fans – and particularly Republicans – agree with DeSantis that Major League Baseball should concentrate on playing baseball games, and stay out of politics. DeSantis then warned his audience that Republicans were also growing increasingly concerned about what they’re seeing out of corporate boardrooms around the country – not just in professional and college sports.

“They see these big companies that are really kowtowing to a very elite ideology, an ideology that’s not reflective of the vast, vast majority of the country,” DeSantis said. “[These companies are] responsive to the latest kind of online mob or whatever the corporate press is talking about at a given time. And they’ve really kind of contorted themselves into something that I think is just not sustainable.”

The Florida Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event, didn’t respond to two messages seeking comment on DeSantis’s remarks for this article – and who can blame them for not wanting to draw the ire of a governor willing to use his political power if he thinks an organization has stepped out of line?

Politically, DeSantis’s position on the matter makes sense. As he pointed out, Republicans, myself included, are growing increasingly worried about having to tip-toe through the minefield of political correctness. He’s undoubtedly winning a lot of support by standing up against the out-of-control political correctness of the liberal left.

But exchanging conservative principles for political power is an extremely dangerous slippery slope, one that conservative leaders have traditionally taken great care to avoid, despite the obvious temptation.

For conservative Republicans like me who are tempted to cheer DeSantis on when he champions a strong-armed solution to an obvious and growing problem, we would all do well to remember this:

DeSantis won’t be governor forever.

 

9 Comments

  1. Karen Cutler

    Dear Brian, could you cite one incidence of Gov. DeSantis threatening woke liberals?

  2. John

    DeSantis is telling business owners that if he doesn’t like how you run your business, he’s going to challenge you. Such a good fascist. He treats city and county governments with the same distain. No home rule for you. DeSantis’ autocratic tendencies are cut from the leader of his party. No, he won’t be governor forever and pray he won’t be president either.

  3. Charlotte Greenbarg

    Your personal bias against Gov. DeSantis has stepped over the line and has become editorializing in the guise of reporting. So then you would oppose governments divesting from Ben & Jerry because of their anti-Israel propaganda and actions? Gov. DeSantis is correct. Once businesses get involved in politics they face the consequences.

  4. Anonymous

    Burgess sounds like a ‘woke’ reporter (certainly not a journalist) when he questions Gov. DeSantis’ approach to dealing with corporate wokism. A traditional conservative recognition of business ‘rights’ is ineffective against corporations who do not recognize that same right to customers or citizens. This ‘wokism’ is simply communist ideology in a new package. These communists are in every facet of American culture, schools, government, medicine and now corporations. They must be purged if we are to survive as a free people.

    • OkeyDokey

      Having a political perspective and agreeing or disagreeing with a particular issue is a value we supposedly treasure in America. It seems now more than ever that certain people, like yourself, will freely label anyone they happen to disagree with on any issue as a “communist”. The problem is when you broadly and incorrectly label people with terms that are not actually true it loses much of it’s potency and people do not take you seriously. What it does prove is 1) you don’t know what the definition of “communism” is, and 2) you don’t know what “woke” is other than a label you apply to anything you don’t like or understand.

  5. BruceS

    Well done. When the chief executive issues a threat, particularly an elected official in a one-party state, it needs to be seen for what it is – the posture of an authoritarian – and not taken lightly. This isn’t his first threat; it can be added to a long list of those who have had the audacity to disagree and act contrary to his wishes – see school boards and masks as just one other example. While politicians are free to disagree and even denounce positions, it is a whole other level when the power of the office is used to menace potential critics and contrarians. Thank you for taking a strong stand.

  6. Evan

    He will serve two terms. He is better than any past Florida governor.

  7. Richard Lee Bowers

    Deathsantis is working hard to insult all the institutions that strive to keep this state going. Stopping Professors from testifying is just the latest example.

  8. GD

    Defascist.
    Remember when repubs were against fascists? For local, personal rights? Now he’s coming for business’ rights..
    It’s well known that ‘woke’ companies do better financially so it’s in their best interests to do good.
    For the good of the repub party you need to vote dem to clean out the fascist, racist rot in your party. a good drubbing in 22, 24 would drive them back in the holes they crawled out of and decent repubs can make a good center right party again.